June 23, 2022
Māori needed for stroke services
A leading Māori health researcher says more Māori doctors and other clinicians need to be trained in stroke therapy.
University of Auckland associate professor Matire Harwood says Māori are twice as likely to stroke than Pākeha.
In focus group research published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, she found many stroke sufferers said they were fobbed off when they tried to get information on why they had a stroke.
Māori also commented on the absence of Māori within stroke services.
“‘We didn’t see anybody who looked like us during this whole process and so they don’t understand our context, they don’t understand we’re a bit younger, we’re going to go home to live with whanau.’ Cultural safety did come through in this study for Māori and Pacific Island people so we’d love to ensure there’s a better programme for the workforce development in this space,” Dr Harwood says.
It’s estimated there are 9000 strokes a year in New Zealand and this is expected to increase by 40 percent in the next decade.